Starting a family in our first home

May 2017, Sam at 11 Months Old

I am sooooooo behind! Ugh! It’s almost August and I’m writing about May. Well, here goes!

Sam started the month out ON THE MOVE! Lots of crawling and climbing.

A.’s parents visited and we went to the zoo!

And scoped out venues for Ari’s birthday party. Here are some pictures from Brooklyn Park.

Later, Sam tried some ramen at the Tidbit food cart pod near us.

He loves his walker wagon!

I was a few days late getting this photo. The first time I tried, he moved around so much I couldn’t get one!

On a day I was home alone with the boys, I set up the easel on our front porch so we could spend some time outside.

Ari played “Dr. Ari” in his little scrubs, and Sam played with my hair brush:

We got the beginnings of a roof on the ADU:

I took the boys to Piccolo Park and we had fun:

On May 13th, Ari was in his first play! It was the culmination of a class he was taking on Saturdays with one of his favorite teachers. They made costumes and acted out a book that I think was called “Mushroom in the Rain”. Ari was a fox who flipped his tail up! I had to work that day and was very sad to miss it, but it was very short and A. took a video for me.

Another day, Sam crashed hard (in his crib!) after he spent some time at a friend’s house while I had some special time with Ari:

Later, he entertained himself in the kitchen, emptying drawers and relocating dog food:

I reread some of this book, The Emotional Life of the Toddler, which I had enjoyed when Ari was approaching toddlerhood:

Here are a few of the pages that were significant to me:

I was also reading this book, How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm:

Here’s the table of contents – all interesting topics!

Finally, I was also reading this book, Diaper-Free Before 3, and thinking about starting Sam on the potty:

Here’s an example of the philosophy presented:

Back to the kids, here’s Sam drinking out of a glass:

And lounging on the dog bed:

The boys playing together:

Biking with Daddy:

Helping me do some weeding so we could plant some flower seeds from Ari’s Easter basket:

Checking out each other’s sunglasses:

Portland does a fun summer event called Sunday Parkways, centered in different neighborhoods on different weekends, with streets blocked off along a big route for biking, walking, and hanging out. A. created and sat at a table for an organization he recently started, the Portland Bus Lane Project. He shared space with another organization he is a member of, BikeLoudPDX. I biked the kids over there and we spent some time helping him hand out postcards for people to mail to their city representatives:

As people biked by, I admired this big family bike:

It was my first time biking with both of the kids. I was terrified, but it wasn’t so hard with the electric assist!

At a park along the route, Ari enjoyed a bouncy house, then helped deflate it:

We had a horrible, scary event just before he went in the bouncy house, too. I biked the kids over to the park after we left A.’s table, and A. and his brother, who was visiting, were headed over to meet us there. (Later, A.’s brother’s wife met us there, too, but she was at a conference during the day.) I got the kids out of the bike and told Ari he could run off toward the bouncy house (not far away, right in my line of sight) and I’d catch up with him after I got my stuff and stabilized the bike. That was a dumb move, because I had some trouble with the bike, then I got caught up in the happy, relaxed feeling created by the music and dancing and happy crowds of people and the fact that no cars were on the road by the park, and I watched Ari run toward the line for the bouncy house and then paused for a moment to enjoy it all, then I went off after him and couldn’t find him! I ran in a panic all around the bouncy house, scanned the crowds and finally found A. and his brother and shouted to them that I couldn’t find Ari, and we all went in different directions and A. finally saw him staggering around near the bike and watched him collapse, sobbing, in the middle of a crowd of concerned women, and when I got back there he was sitting there with A. looking shell-shocked, with his chest still heaving. We sat and cuddled for a while before he was ready to head back to the bouncy house, and we talked and talked about what had happened and what he could do if it happened again, and I told him over and over that I would never, ever leave him alone and that I had been looking for him all over the park. Oh, man, I felt terrible! Fortunately, he had fun in the bouncy house after that.

Here’s a look at some of the framing inside the ADU:

And the weeds where our garden used to be – gaaah!

Sam playing:

Westmoreland Park on a terrible turned better day,when I gave up on all my objectives and decided to just have a nice afternoon:

My friend who went with us and took the pictures of me talked me into a trip to Cloud City Ice Cream on Woodstock – yum!!

Another day, Ari drew a “self-portrait” at school with chalk when I arrived to pick him up. It was the first time I’d seen him draw a stick figure with a neck, torso, arms, and legs.

We’ve been eating pretty badly lately, with lots of take-out and boxed mac and cheese. One evening, I tried to make a relatively complete meal around the biscuits A. had made earlier. I made a sweet potato, corn, and bean salad and added vegetarian burger patties for some protein.

Ari took some funny pictures of Sam:

I found this adorable little bag when I was out shopping for cards:

One day I picked up the boys and, in a surprising turn of events, Sam, rather than Ari, was covered in paint:

Some plumbing went into the ADU:

Ari helped water the blueberries:

A. planted tomatoes and Ari and I planted nasturtium seeds from his Easter basket around them:

I took a break from the parenting books and spent a while working my way through all of the library’s books on hygge:

As the days got longer, I was able to leave work when it was still light out some days, and I enjoyed (and still enjoy) the beautiful evenings commuting on Tilikum Crossing by bus, light rail, or bicycle:

Ari loves using a Reading Rainbow program on whatever device A. set it up on for him. He also LOVES dried, salty seaweed, so I try to offer it when I think of it, because I think that and broccoli are the only green foods he’ll eat:

I made fruit salad one day and was proud of myself – this stuff is hard for me!

Westmoreland Park again, at the end of the month:

Ari started making structures and designs with Magnatiles (and magnetic tiles of a different brand) at home. He mostly makes three-dimensional structures, but the flat patterns reminded me of playing with “pattern blocks” as a kid.

Some other notes from May:

Ari was often saying, “I want to grow up to be a baby.” I wonder whether he thought Sam was getting more interesting, or he was jealous of him for some reason, or… I don’t know.

He was also calling us “Mom” and “Dad” instead of “Mommy” and “Daddy”. However, he’s mostly gone back to “Mommy” and “Daddy” now.

At bedtime, we lie down with Ari and ask him to tell us about the saddest and happiest things from the day. One night, he put on a sweet smile and told me the happiest time of the day was “Right now, with you sleeping with me.” Sigh. How can I not stay with him until he falls asleep?

He was also experimenting with saying not nice things, and for the first time, he said to me, “I hate you.” It didn’t really bother me because I knew he was just releasing frustration and trying it out, but I did wonder how I should respond. I’m still wondering!

One day, I was tired of him asking me questions about how his toy vacuum with the balls that pop up works, so I got out a screwdriver and we took it apart! We inspected the mechanism and then put it back together. I’m not sure he really got it, but I learned something, and was quite proud of myself!

Around May 21-22, Sam started to stand up on his own!

At the end of May, Sam was sort of playing catch, either tossing or rolling balls back and forth.

At the beginning of June, his two top front teeth were in and he had started pointing at things.

Also at the beginning of June, just before Sam turned one, we went on a camping trip with A.’s brother and his wife. I’ll talk about that in my next post!